Like Roses
by Silv3r Wolf
Summary: We all know what happened to the girl in the red hood. But what we don't know is what happened after. In a forest we know so well, the wolves rule. Red Riding Hood is forced to grow up to combat the wolves she has had so much experience with. One-Shot


At the edge of a cliff in the middle of the winter lies a grave stone, in front of the grave site is a weeping girl in a red cloak with her hood up. The girl stares at the grave with tears staining her plum cheeks. It's been many years since her grandmother had died but the pain of her death had never ceased. Her mother has tried comforting her but it had no effect, she was stuck. Stuck in time, stuck in memories, stuck in griefing. Her mother had all but given up hope that her daughter would move past this.

The girl continued looking at the grave, if only she could have done something to save her. She knew it was useless looking back and wishing different, but she couldn't help it. Grandmother had been her everything. Her escape from daily life, the bullying, the loneliness. She had her mother but it did not help, she wanted her grandmother back. There was no else for her and that only made things worse, why couldn't her mother see?

Ever since that incident so many years ago. That wolf, the woodsman, granny, and her. Nothing was the same anymore, that damned wolf had almost eaten granny and her. Thankfully the woodsman was nearby and put a stop to it. Though the wolf had gotten away, the man had checked on them for a few days to make sure that it hadn't come back. He was quite nice and polite to the elder woman and child in the red cloak. She was no longer a child anymore, she was now a teenager with responsibilities.

The girl wiped away the tears that glimmered in her eyes. Red, such a funny name. Everyone had taken to calling her Red because of the hood she always wore, she rather liked the name compared to her real one. The hood was also a gift from her grandmother, it was all she had left of her. Red ran her hand down the back of her cloak, she stopped when she felt the claw shaped tear. A sigh escaped her lips as she remembered her first fight against the wolves

-Years Ago.

She had just turned 12 and mother had finally decided to let her roam the forest by herself. she began to wander around the lush green forest, she quickly became lost and found herself in the middle of the thick woods. Low guttural growls came from the bushes that surrounded her, Red had let out a cry of help. Various wolf emerged from the shadows of the trees which only instilled more fear in the girl.

They closed in on the frightened girl, their pearly white teeth could be seen as they began to open their mouths at the same time. Red fell backwards on her bum, she pulled her knees inwards and cradled them. She closed her eyes and felt fear claw it's way into her mind and corrupt it. They were going to kill her and eat her, she knew it, the poor girl felt ill at that thought. Slowly she opened her eyes and prepared to meet her death. Facing death at such a young age, it was terrible, yet she was now facing it. It took all of her strength and will just to open her eyes.

In front of her was a pack of wolves, all with different colored fur and facial features and marks. They stared at her hungrily, drool dripped from their teeth as they craved the girl's flesh. Red looked at the pack with fear and slight confusion, they had not hurt her yet, why? Among the group, Red spotted the smallest of the giant wolves. It's fur was an ebony black and held a familiar look. She scanned this wolf and the others seemed to take notice. They let out low growls and one even… chuckled?

The smallest wolf let out a bark at it's pack brother, it looked to Red and growled at her. She wished that she could understand it, that way she would know what was so funny. The beast closed in on her and opened its maw. A row of razor sharp teeth were shown to her as it prepared to kill her. Red once again closed her eyes, she began to tremble with fear, and the wolf liked it. It liked having her cower from it as it prepared to devour her.

Red's eyes shot open when she heard the cracks of branches and the sound of shoes stepping through grass. It was the woodsman! He was nearby and he could save her from these awful beasts. The wolves heard this to and wiped around to face the direction the noise came from. Hope began to rise in Red. She had to get his attention so that he could save her. Red opened her lips and tried to speak but only a pitiful squeal came out. She had to get his attention, or else she was doomed. Once again, Red opened her lips and spoke but this time not a little squeal.

"H-H- HEELLP!"

The wolves turned to her and let out loud growls, at the same time Red heard footsteps become more rapid. She heard a deep voice come from the thick forest surrounding her.

"RED, I'M COMING!"

She felt her spirit lift at the words that echoed through the woods. The rushed footsteps became closer and closer until they seemed to be only behind the trees and bushes that clouded her vision. The biggest wolf in the pack let out a howl and lunged at the woodsman. A shot rang out. Red covered her ears at the sudden loud noise that made her ears ring in pain. The rest of the pack followed the bigger wolf's move and attacked the woodsman. More gunshots rang out and only deafened Red's hearing even more.

A scream came out from the woodsman as he was assaulted by the group of ravenous beasts. They all sunk their teeth into the older man's flesh and soon he was nothing more than another meal. Red stood up from the ground and spotted the revolver lying on the ground a few feet away from the feasting wolves. The hooded girl ran to the gun and picked it up. It was rather heavy for it's size and the barrel only worsened her aim. A few of the wolves took notice and stopped their feasting. They began to approach the now armed little girl.

Red steadied the gun and aimed at the wolf closest to her and swiftly pulled the trigger. The sound hurt Red's ears so much that she dropped the gun. Red clenched her ears and squeezed her eyes shut. A few seconds later she opened her eyes and saw that the wolf she had shot was bleeding immensely. A howl escaped it's mouth as it limped away from the girl. The others took notice of their injured comrade and scattered at the girl showing force.

With the wolves now gone Red ran towards the woodsman. His body was shredded at the neck, his arteries and veins were squirting out blood that stained the grass beneath him. Red layed her head on his stomach and let all her sadness come crashing man that had protected her and saved grandmother was now dead. A cascade of tears dripped down her cheeks and onto the man's chest. It just wasn't fair! These damned wolves were always cutting into her life and ruining everything. Now the woodsman was dead as a result.

Red looked at the woods surrounding her, she sucked in a quick breath when she noticed the smaller wolf. It was still there and it was watching her. Red locked eyes with the beast. She had no idea why the wolf was still there. The wolf still held that familiar air, something about it was so familiar, she did not know why.

"_Red…"_ spoke a low gravelly voice.

Red narrowed her eyes at the wolf, it… spoke. She didn't know it could do that. The wolf was stood up on it's hind legs, she didn't know it could do that either.

"_Red…"_ the beast spoke again, was it asking her something?

The hooded girl gulped and gathered her courage, tears still flowed down her pale white cheeks.

"U-um…. yes?" The red cloaked girl stammered out.

The beast lifted a claw and pointed to itself and said _"Remember"_ in that harsh voice.

Red began to think real hard. This beast wanted her to remember it, but why? She knew something was familiar, but…

Just like that, memories of the incident 4 years prior began flooding her mind It all came back, she remembered it like it was just yesterday. The fear of being killed, the paranoia of walking through the woods alone, the anger of her grandmother being hurt by the wolf. This was the wolf that attacked them and tried to kill them. It wasn't by itself though, it was part of a pack, and it was smaller than the others. That meant that this was the weakest animal in the forest and that there were deadlier creatures lurking.

Red gasped at the thought. The wolf went back down on all fours and walked into the thick woods, following it's brethren. Red put her hood down and ran her fingers across the cloth that made up her favorite hood. She paused when she felt a gap in the fabric, Red quickly looked to the spot on her hood and let out a gasp. On the hood was 3 claw marks lined up next to each other.

-Present-

The tears had since stopped falling from her eyes. Red grimaced at the memories of her first encounter. She never knew how her cloak ripped even though the wolves had never touched her. At least she didn't remember them laying a claw on her.

She looked upwards toward the sky, snow began to fall from the clouds. Her hood clouded half her vision while she looked towards the grey gloomy clouds. The snow began to hit her hood and left small stains on her clothing. The snow that already surrounded grandmother's grave began to pile up even more. Snow began to fall off the cliff and down into the abyss. The weather was so gloomy and dreary but in truth, Red liked it. Of course sunny weather was nice, but this was pretty. The way the snow looked in the clearing with the forest in the background.

Red's cloak began to be pushed by the wind, she was just so tired of this fighting. The forest took up so much of where she and her mother lived. Then there were the people in the village that cleared part of the forest, she could only imagine how pissed they were when they found out that a large pack of ravenous wolves were just waiting to sink their teeth into them. No one else had the courage to stand up to these beasts.

When the villagers had heard of Red's goal to clear the forest they were skeptical, some of Red's friends had tried to convince her, but there was no going back.

The snow began to fall harder effectively making it harder to see. Red turned around, her boots sloshed in the snow, it had risen a few inches since she arrived. Red looked up from the ground, her hood covered half of her face, only showing the lower half of her head. In front of her was the wolf, the one that she had some much history with. The beast stared at her intently, slowly it lifted it's hand up and pointed a claw at itself.

"_Remem-"_

"Yes" Red said sharply.

Red glared at it. Hate and annoyance were laced in with her words. She wanted to go home, not to see her mother, not to feel safe, to just to be somewhere else. This place held great sadness, but Red just couldn't help herself. The wolf was not entirely standing on all fours, it was standing on it's hind legs while also keeping it's arms in front of it on the snow.

"What do you want" she said with venom in her words.

It said nothing, just… stared at her. I wanted something, just wasn't voicing what it wanted, or needed. After a few seconds of silence, Red let out a sigh and continued to walk back into the forest, ignoring the furred creature. The beast growled and bared its teeth at her in annoyance at her ignoring it.

In reaction to the creature baring it's teeth, Red pulled out a steel colored Revolver with a rose design on the handle. The wolf snarled at her, she didn't care, it was in her way, and why should she show kindness to the creature that killed her grandmother! Red kept the sights of the gun aligned between the creatures eyes. Her finger was on the trigger and was itching to pull it. Red aimed the gun slightly to the left and pulled the trigger, only missing the wolf's head by a few inches.

The recoil in the gun made Red's arm shoot with red hot pain. Her wound had reopened from earlier and was now gushing blood. Her black sleeve was now a crimson red. Red dropped the gun into the snow and let her arm go limp to reduce some pain.

The wolf sniffed the air and could smell the blood that came from her. It didn't care, she was a mere human in it's eyes. Yet this girl…. so many years earlier it had changed her life, it didn't know for better or worse but it didn't matter. It saw her growing up, turning into the strong woman in front of it. The wolf felt some pride in knowing it caused this change. She was no longer a scared little girl, now she was a strong wolf hunter. That meant she was a threat to it and it's brothers.

Blood started to trickle down her arm and drip into the snow. The patch of red was very noticeable in the snow. The color of her blood in the snow made it lighter. Almost like roses.

* * *

><p>Hey guys, I got this idea actually from RWBY. I was fed up how no one made a Red Riding Hood style of Ruby, so I decided to make one myself... uh sort of. I decided instead of using Ruby I would use my own version of the fairy tale. Fun fact, in some versions of the tale, Little Red Riding Hood's name is Ruby. I wanted to harden Red in some way and make her into a hunter, so by doing this I would have to kill off the one character that protects her all the time. Hence the Woodsman. I may make this into a series of one-shots due to the cliffhanger, I wanted to get this out on New Year and succeeded. I'm rambling now, anyways leave a comment telling me what you think. See you around.<p>

EDIT: Sooooo, should I make this a full series? Comment either yes or no, or don't and I'll get the message.

WARNING: If there are no comments saying I should continue by Valentines Day then I shall not continue.


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